Both of them froze like someone had hit thepausebutton. Mom opened her mouth, then closed it again, and blinked rapidly.
“The front porch has room for a ramp,” I explained. “Or one of those fancy electric platforms that can carry you up three steps. You can take the bedroom on this floor, obviously. I’ll take the one at the top of the stairs. We can make the other bedrooms into an office and a guest room, in case Uncle Teddy comes to visit. Did you see how wide the kitchen is? You can roll around the island no problem! I know you don’t want your daughter taking care of you…”
I braced myself for their refusal. They didn’t like it when I tried to help them with the little things, like rent or groceries, so theydefinitelywouldn’t accept this. I knew it might take some convincing.
But then Dad pulled me down and hugged me more fiercely than he ever had in my life. Mom threw her arms around both of us and began weeping.
“This had better not be a prank!” Dad said, sniffing himself. “I’ve seen hidden camera pranks like this on the YouTube…”
“It’s not a prank,” I said, tears flowing down my own cheeks. “This is real. This is our house.”
“But how can you afford this!” Mom wailed.
“My new job. I get paid well.”
“But the down payment must have been—”
“Don’t worry about it,” I insisted. “I work in finance, Mom. I’ve run the numbers. I can afford it.”
“But…” She wiped tears from her eyes. “How much will you charge us for rent?”
I scoffed. “Shut up!”
“You must let us contribute!”
“I won’t take a penny from you, Dad.”
“At least let me cook for you!” Mom said. “I can do all the meals!”
“You can cook as much as you want.”
We hugged again, and I savored the moment. I had spent so long dreaming about this moment that I never actually accepted that it might eventually happen. Now that I was here, standing in a house that I was going to own… their emotions were infectious, and it all came pouring out of me.
This is the happiest day of my life.
“I can’t wait to move out!” Mom said. “I’ll never worry aboutthat womanagain.”
I didn’t need to ask which woman she meant. “We’ll never have to worry about Sandra Trout raising our rent. She’ll never control us, ever again.”
My phone chimed with an email. I glanced at the screen without opening it. I had a meeting invite from Sandra Trout herself, for tomorrow morning. Several other NMCF employees were invited. She wanted to discuss future grant allotments. She also wrote in the meeting details that thanks to my quick work, she was going to make a larger contribution to the fund in the spring.
“Okay, let me rephrase that. Sandra Trout will never control us in ourpersonallives. I still have to deal with her at work.”
“Suck up to her!” Dad said emphatically. “Don’t put your job in jeopardy, not now that you have this house to pay for!”
“Don’t worry,” I said, breathing in the wonderful air of the house.Myhouse. “My job is safe.”
49
Ginny
The Sandra Trout meeting was scheduled for 9:00am. Aside from me, she had invited Michael, August, the CEO Cornelius Cunningham, and another member of the finance team named Julia who handled grant follow-ups. When I passed by the conference room on the way to get coffee, I saw that Cornelius was already seated and chatting with his son. August saw me, and mimed putting a gun to his head and blowing his brains out.
There was a pleasant surprise waiting for me in the break room. “Michael! You’re feeling better?”
He gave me a subdued smile. “Yeah. Finally kicked it. I probably should have taken today off too, but I didn’t want to miss Sandra’s big meeting.”
“You look great. Like you never even had the flu.”